1. Field of the Application
This invention relates to novel vitamin E derivatives having excellent effects as a drug and a process for the production thereof.
This invention provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising a pharmacologically effective amount of the vitamin E derivative and a pharmacologically acceptable carrier.
Besides the invention provides a method for treating arteriosclerosis by administering a pharmacologically effective amount of the vitamin E derivative to a human patient.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been known that the administration of nicotinic acid to man serves to lower the blood triglyceride level and the blood cholesterol level. Thus the administration of nicotinic acid has been widely employed in the treatment of hyperlipemia.
However the administration of nicotinic acid per se is not necessarily a convenient therapeutic method, since a rapid increase in the blood nicotinic acid level would cause some side effects.
There has been frequently attempted to develop a novel nicotinic acid derivative which maintains the excellent antihyperlipemic effect of nicotinic acid and scarcely exerts any side effect. For example, .alpha.-tocopheryl nicotinate, which is obtained by binding vitamin E to nicotinic acid via an ester bond and shows synergistic effects of vitamin E and nicotinic acid (for example, improving lipid metabolism and promoting microcirculation), has been frequently used clinically. Further, there have been developed nicotinates of polyhydric alcohols such as pentaerythritol tetranicotinate and 2,2,6,6-tetrakis(nicotinoyloxymethyl)cyclohexyl nicotinate.
However none of these compounds is satisfactory in, for example, lowering the blood lipid level. It has been urgently required, therefore, to develop a compound which can more continuously maintain a stable blood nicotinic acid level and scarcely shows any side effect seemingly caused by a rapid increase in the blood nicotinic acid level.